Have you ever had a Larabar? They’re the most simple and straightforward energy bar I’ve ever seen. The ingredient list is very short, from 2-9 ingredients and all whole foods – namely dates and nuts plus spices or fruits. They have fun flavors like peanut butter cookie (dates, peanuts and salt) and banana bread (almonds, dates, unsweetened bananas). They also claim to be raw, vegan, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, non-GMO, and kosher. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, they’re pretty awesome but also pretty expensive (over $1/bar).

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Luckily, it’s incredibly easy to make them at home, and you can make them into any size, shape or flavor you want. I tried making cashew cookie and a chocolate/walnut combination and they were actually a bit richer than the store-bought bars. The possible combinations of dried fruits and nuts is almost endless!

What flavor of Larabar would you like to recreate?

Recipe:

Cashew Cookie Larabars

3/4 C dates, pitted and roughly chopped

1/2 C cashews

Pinch of salt (optional)

Process dates in food processor until finely chopped. Place in a medium bowl. Process cashews in food processor until finely chopped, then add to processed dates. Add salt and mix together with your hands until throughly combined. Then mash the mixture together and form into desired shapes. (If mixture is too crumbly, try applying more pressure. If still too crumbly, add more processed dates.)

Place chopped dates and walnuts in food processor. Pulse a few times until pieces are fairly small, then add cocoa powder and vanilla and process until throughly combined. Use your hands or place mixture into saran wrap to shape into bars or other shapes.

I love larabars but I agree they are expensive. I think of them as a special treat. Your recipe is so simple. I cannot wait to try it. Thanks for sharing!Emily @ Life On Food recently posted Bedtime stories

Kt

March 17, 2011 at 3:29 pm (4 years ago)

I’ve never heard of Larabars (may be it’s an American brand?) – but loved the idea and so made them immediately. Very surprised how only 2 or 3 ingredients make such yummy treats …just made almond and date, going shopping tomorrow to buy more nuts and dried fruit to play with! Thank you for sharing this

So glad everyone is excited about these! I was too, they’re such an easy money saver.

Charissa – I’ve never had the cookie dough but that sounds like my type of energy bar! That will be the next one I try.

KT – yes, they are an American brand. I’m not sure how widespread they are. So glad you tried the recipe and enjoyed it! It’s fun to play aound with different nuts and fruit. Also adding spices like cinnamon is a nice twist.

nc – Basically, take your favorite nut and dates and you have a base for Larabars that you can mess around with. I would try an equal proportion of nuts:dates and add more dates if the texture isn’t quite right. Different nuts give different flavors and obviously adding spices and other dried fruits will add more flavor as well.

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[…] (over $1/bar). Luckily, you can make them pretty easily at home. So far I’ve tried making copycat cashew cookie Larabars, copycat chocolate Larabars and (this is similar to Larabars but with some added grains) healthy […]